Logging AWS AppConfig API calls using AWS CloudTrail

AWS AppConfig is integrated with AWS CloudTrail, a service that provides a record of actions taken by a user, role, or an AWS service. CloudTrail captures all API calls for AWS AppConfig as events. The calls captured include calls from the AWS AppConfig console and code calls to the AWS AppConfig API operations. Using the information collected by CloudTrail, you can determine the request that was made to AWS AppConfig, the IP address from which the request was made, when it was made, and additional details.

Every event or log entry contains information about who generated the request. The identity information helps you determine the following:

CloudTrail is active in your AWS account when you create the account and you automatically have access to the CloudTrail Event history. The CloudTrail Event history provides a viewable, searchable, downloadable, and immutable record of the past 90 days of recorded management events in an AWS Region. For more information, see Working with CloudTrail Event history in the AWS CloudTrail User Guide. There are no CloudTrail charges for viewing the Event history.

For an ongoing record of events in your AWS account past 90 days, create a trail or a CloudTrail Lake event data store.

AWS AppConfig data events in CloudTrail

Data events provide information about the resource operations performed on or in a resource (for example, retrieving the latest deployed configuration by calling GetLatestConfiguration). These are also known as data plane operations. Data events are often high-volume activities. By default, CloudTrail doesn’t log data events. The CloudTrail Event history doesn't record data events.

Additional charges apply for data events. For more information about CloudTrail pricing, see AWS CloudTrail Pricing.

You can log data events for the AWS AppConfig resource types by using the CloudTrail console, AWS CLI, or CloudTrail API operations. The table in this section shows the resource types available for AWS AppConfig.

The following table lists the AWS AppConfig resource types. The Data event type (console) column shows the value to choose from the Data event type list on the CloudTrail console. The resources.type value column shows the resources.type value, which you would specify when configuring advanced event selectors using the AWS CLI or CloudTrail APIs. The Data APIs logged to CloudTrail column shows the API calls logged to CloudTrail for the resource type.

*You can configure advanced event selectors to filter on the eventName, readOnly, and resources.ARN fields to log only those events that are important to you. For more information about these fields, see AdvancedFieldSelector.

AWS AppConfig management events in CloudTrail

AWS AppConfig logs all AWS AppConfig control plane operations as management events. For a list of the AWS AppConfig control plane operations that AWS AppConfig logs to CloudTrail, see the AWS AppConfig API Reference.

AWS AppConfig event examples

An event represents a single request from any source and includes information about the requested API operation, the date and time of the operation, request parameters, and so on. CloudTrail log files aren't an ordered stack trace of the public API calls, so events don't appear in any specific order.

The following example shows a CloudTrail event that demonstrates the StartConfigurationSession operation.

{
      "eventVersion": "1.09",
      "userIdentity": {
        "type": "IAMUser",
        "principalId": "AIDACKCEVSQ6C2EXAMPLE",
        "arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/Administrator",
        "accountId": "123456789012",
        "accessKeyId": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
        "sessionContext": {
          "sessionIssuer": {},
          "attributes": {
            "creationDate": "2024-01-11T14:37:02Z",
            "mfaAuthenticated": "false"
          }
        }
      },
      "eventTime": "2024-01-11T14:45:15Z",
      "eventSource": "appconfig.amazonaws.com",
      "eventName": "StartConfigurationSession",
      "awsRegion": "us-east-1",
      "sourceIPAddress": "203.0.113.0",
      "userAgent": "Boto3/1.34.11 md/Botocore#1.34.11 ua/2.0 os/macos#22.6.0 md/arch#x86_64 lang/python#3.11.4 md/pyimpl#CPython cfg/retry-mode#legacy Botocore/1.34.11",
      "requestParameters": {
        "applicationIdentifier": "rrfexample",
        "environmentIdentifier": "mexampleqe0",
        "configurationProfileIdentifier": "3eexampleu1"
      },
      "responseElements": null,
      "requestID": "a1b2c3d4-5678-90ab-cdef-aaaaaEXAMPLE",
      "eventID": "a1b2c3d4-5678-90ab-cdef-bbbbbEXAMPLE",
      "readOnly": false,
      "resources": [
        {
          "accountId": "123456789012",
          "type": "AWS::AppConfig::Configuration",
          "ARN": "arn:aws:appconfig:us-east-1:123456789012:application/rrfexample/environment/mexampleqe0/configuration/3eexampleu1"
        }
      ],
      "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
      "managementEvent": false,
      "recipientAccountId": "123456789012",
      "eventCategory": "Data",
      "tlsDetails": {
        "tlsVersion": "TLSv1.3",
        "cipherSuite": "TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256",
        "clientProvidedHostHeader": "appconfigdata.us-east-1.amazonaws.com"
      }
    }

For information about CloudTrail record contents, see CloudTrail record contents in the AWS CloudTrail User Guide.